


Jurassic Job

by andeemae



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, the jurassic world au no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:27:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27442645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andeemae/pseuds/andeemae
Summary: Experimental plants, rampaging dinosaurs, and cupcakes, what more could anyone want from a job?
Relationships: Gale Hawthorne/Madge Undersee
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine. Any lines from the books are hers too. It's all hers. I also don't own Jurassic World or Park or even a dinosaur. I just don't.

Madge sighs as she tries to feed the giant fern. It's some strange genetic hybrid created to add wonderment to the park, but she can't help but wonder who thought splicing it with a carnivorous plant wasn't a bad idea.

"People will love it!" Her supervisor had squealed when Madge had first asked about the advisability of the choice. "Otherwise the dinosaurs will get all the attention."

That, Madge thought, was the point. They were in Jurassic World, land of the dinosaurs, not land of the completely fabricated, violent, plants. It wasn't until a kid tripped over a guardrail, into an ornately designed flower bed, and lost his arm from the elbow down that the park management finally realized that the plants didn't need to be every bit as wild as the main attractions.

Every 'man-eating fern' had been removed after that, except for the small collection Madge now had to tend to. They were meant as a deterrent, keeping people from wandering off and getting too close to the back of the T. Rex paddock.

If she saw a bright red sign with an Audrey expy on it, chomping the legs off a stick person, she'd certainly stay away at any rate.

Tossing the last of the unidentified meat from her pail into the strange open jaws of the fern, she turns and nearly runs into something warm and solid.

Screaming, she almost trips backward into the once again open mouth of one of the ferns.

"Why do they let their clumsiest botanist prune their deadliest plant?" Gale chuckles, pulling her against his chest.

Rolling her eyes, Madge hits him with her bucket, sloshing a little blood on the ground as she does.

"I'm not clumsy." Even though she might be, a little. "You scared the crap out of me."

"Did you think one of your babies uprooted itself and decided it wanted Madge meat and not," he squints at the plants, "whatever the hell it is you just fed them?"

She snorts. "They aren't my babies."

Not by a long shot. They were that fraud Effie Trinket's. How she hadn't been fired was anyone's guess. Her landscaping ideas weren't that great.

Taking the bucket from her, Gale leads the way out of the flower bed, up to the hidden walkway it guarded that led to the T. Rex paddock.

"Wanna come see the old girl get her next meal?"

Madge makes a face. She's seen 'the old girl' eat too many times already. It had never held much appeal to her, and watching her devour a goat an unnumbered amount of times hadn't changed that.

"Your loss."

They head away from the paddock, twisting through the much less deadly, but still not entirely authentic, plant life that's been carefully set out around the park.

Madge and Gale had met when they'd both come to the park as interns, back when it was still an experiment that most people thought would fail.

It had been exciting for Madge, an adventure. Leaving the country to help cultivate exotic plants, to help create a sustainable food source for creatures that had been extinct up until recently, to be part of history in the making. It was better than working for a pharmaceutical company, at least in her mind.

When she'd gotten there, she and all the other interns were quickly put to work in the botanical gardens, weeding and planting, which wouldn't have been so bad, if anyone would've listened to them when they made suggestions or inquiries about strange choices.

"These plants have a very irritating oil on their leaves," Thresh had pointed out. "Should we plant them so close to the path?"

Effie had simply laughed. "It's not like anyone is going to touch them. Besides, they're just gorgeous!"

Just like the ferns, she'd been wrong. Not a week after opening, several people had ended up at the park's medical stations with rashes that were eventually attributed to the oil on the leaves.

The entire garden had to be redone after that, and somehow Effie had managed to worm her way out of blame yet again.

If she had known when she'd first accepted the job that she'd end up as little more than a glorified landscaper working for a madwoman, she might've weighed her options a little more carefully.

Glancing over at Gale, she smiles to herself. Well, maybe not.

At least her choice of jobs hadn't been a total disappointment in some regards.

Gale had been an engineering student when he'd first stepped foot on Ilsa Nublar. He'd come to help with the expansion of the park, ensuring that the safety features were sufficient and helping with the almost constant upgrades that occurred. His job, at least, had been exactly what he expected.

He was the sole reason that when her internship had ended and she'd been offered a job that she'd taken it.

"Do you want to try Winston's for a bronto burger?" He asks, checking his app and frowning. "It's showing there are a few seats left. I can text Thom and get him to hold a spot for us."

"We'd have to change clothes," Madge reminds him. "Remember? They told us we can't be seen taking up guest space."

He grumbles, "Commissary it is."

Wrapping an arm around his middle, Madge gives him a squeeze.

"Don't be so glum. We can still stop by 'Baked' and see if Peeta can sneak us a cupcake."

That doesn't brighten his mood any.

Slowly, they make their way out to the main road, crammed with tourists and filled with the smell of hamburgers and steaks. Gale's stomach growls.

"Screw it. I'm going to that restaurant."

"Gale..."

Not hearing her, or more likely ignoring her, Gale grabs her hand and pulls her through the crowd.

"We're going to get in trouble."

"No, we won't."

Maybe _he_ won't, he's one of his supervisor's favorite workers. Beetee considers Gale a kindred spirit, which results in Gale getting the choicest assignments in the most interesting areas. Plus he's good with animals, which earned him a spot in the T. Rex's lead handler's good book. His good connections ensure he won't be sent packing on the next ferry back to the mainland without so much as a commemorative cup.

Madge on the other hand...

While she was on friendly enough terms with most people at the park, she certainly didn't have Gale's kind of immunity.

She was definitely headed toward being fired.

Before she can protest anymore, Gale has pulled her through the glass doors and into the cool of the restaurant.

There are people dining, some dressed like they'd just come from a day of golfing and others in tacky floral shirts, all sipping on enormous 'dino-sized' mixed drinks, oblivious that their ranks have just been infiltrated by a pair of lowly park employees.

Thom spots them, his dark eyebrows high on his head.

"You guys know you aren't supposed to-"

"I don't care. I want a brontosaurus burger."

Raising his hands in surrender, Thom steps away. "Alright there, Mr. Flintstone, keep your animal skin toga on. Sheesh."

Thom disappears for a minute, but before Madge can pull Gale out and convince him that this is a bad idea, he's back, a pair of menus in his hands.

"Hold these over your names at least," he grumbles, shoving the heavy menus at them.

Jerking his head, he gestures for them to follow him as he leads them along the back of the dining area, past the bar, and out onto an empty terrace.

"Is there a reason this area is empty?"

"Yeah," Thom frowns. "A few of the triceratops from the petting zoo got spooked and ran through here a few weeks ago. They just got it finished yesterday."

Madge thinks she sees a small grin twitch on Gale's lips, and that makes her almost certain he knew there was a vacant terrace waiting for them when he'd started dragging her toward Winston's.

"I'll bring your food out, but if anyone spots you, I'm gonna say I've never met you before in my life."

"You're a true friend," Gale mutters, rolling his eyes.

With that and a rude hand gesture directed at Gale, Thom vanishes back into the restaurant, the doors clicking closed behind him.

Plopping into a chair, Gale pulls Madge into his lap and presses his nose to her hair.

"Damn, you smell good."

She laughs. She's worked most of the day, right up until she had to feed the ferns, in the fragrant flower room at the Innovation Center. Somehow she'd been recommended to the paleobotanist as one of the people they ought to talk to before doing their Dr. Frankenstein work on another round of plants, this time to be used in the gift shops as cut arrangements.

"We were working with Magnolias," she tells him as he nips at her earlobe.

"Hmm."

Eyelids fluttering closed, Madge eases into him as he continues to kiss down her neck.

"We should take the rest of the day off."

Her eyes open a fraction and she sighs. "I can't. I have to do tours through the gardens this afternoon."

"Tell them you're sick."

"No, Gale."

He's trying to distract her, get her to agree to playing hooky with him, and doing a damn fine job of it. She would, but she shouldn't, especially since they'd unexpectedly and unexplainably closed the northern portion of the island earlier. They'd need as much help at the remaining attractions as they could get, even somewhere as boring as the gardens.

Hazily, Madge's mind tries to think of things to talk about, anything that'll distract him and make him forget the afternoon he's clearly so intent on getting. He's making an entirely too good an argument and she's dangerously close to giving in.

"Are-Is your family still planning on coming down for Christmas?"

His wandering hands stop. Bingo.

"You could've just said stop," he grumbles, slouching back, his expression disgusted.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, Madge kisses his hair, which smells a bit like fish, and she can only assume that means he'd spent some time with Finnick at the aquarium before he'd come to find her. Probably swam in that nasty holding tank. If he'd have just waited until the evening they could've gone to the beach.

All thoughts of Gale surfing are cut off by both their phones making awful squawking noises.

Madge's stomach drops.

Someone had seen them. Someone had seen them and they were being called in and given their notices.

Her palms sweat and she drops her phone, letting it skitter across the newly varnished wood before she realizes it's fallen.

As she's chasing after it, Gale pulls his from his pocket and silently reads the message.

"Madge."

She shakily picks up her phone, but before she can read it, Gale has pulled her to her feet and is dragging her toward the doors.

"It's a code yellow."

Madge feels her heart begin to pound as she tries to remember what each code meant.

Breach in containment-Gray

Ferry crash-Aqua

Child nearly eaten by plant-Green

_Major disaster, prepare for evacuation- Yellow_

Brain suddenly in overdrive, pulling evacuation protocols out from the dustiest parts of her mind, she quickly follows Gale.

Thom and the other waiters are gathered in a huddle, clearly all having just received word that they're going to have to start kicking patrons out, and they don't even look at the two wayward employees sneaking out.

As soon as they're out of the restaurant, Madge stops, still working through what's happening. "I have to go to the Innovation Center for the resource pool."

"You aren't going anywhere," Gale tells her. "Not until we figure out what the hell is going on."

As if the skies had decided to give him an answer, something screeched overhead, and when they both looked up they spotted dozens of flyers that had undoubtedly escaped the aviary.

This seemed well past major disaster to Madge. The flyers could make it around the world. Some had done so years before, when they'd escaped from one of the secondary islands, before Jurassic World had been established.

This was a straight up catastrophe, but she wasn't in charge of determining that kind of thing.

"Damn." Gale begins pulling her again, down the road this time, through the crowd that is now staring up at the sky in fascination. "Let's get to the bakery and get Mellark, then we can go find Katniss at the petting zoo and join the resource pool."

They're barely halfway to the bakery when the first of the flyers dives into the crowd.

Screams erupt around them, people begin panicking immediately, running and pushing, falling to the ground in an attempt to escape being picked up by the flying dinosaurs.

"How could this happen?!"

The aviary is one of the most secure sites on the island. There'd never been a breach before, not in all the years of operation.

A stray pachycephalosaurus could beat the system she supposed. They were shorting out their implants almost daily because of their head butting, but not even one of those had ever made it to the main street of the park.

Gale doesn't seem to care how the current mess happened, only that they need to get to some shelter before they became a snack for a crazed dinosaur.

Just as the bakery is in sight, a gust of wind knocks Madge off her feet and she hits the ground, her palms and knees taking the brunt of the force.

Looking over, she sees Gale is down to, thrown into a rolling snowcone cart, and she starts to get up to run to him and make sure he isn't hurt, when something darts out and hits the ground where her hand had been only seconds before.

Quickly rolling over, she finds one of the flyers just behind her, eyeing her curiously.

It's scared, she knows that. This is the first time it's ever left the aviary and had the opportunity to interact with the strange beings that come to stare at it. Madge is scared too though, and without a second thought, she pulls back her leg and kicks it as hard as she can in the beak.

It doesn't hurt it, but it does stun it enough to give Madge time to scramble away and get to Gale.

He's already getting up when she gets to him, grimacing and rubbing his head where it had hit the cart.

"I'm fine," he mutters, before she asks, already pulling her again.

She doesn't argue, there isn't time for it, but he's going to see medical soon. Assuming they survive this that is.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine. Any lines from the books are hers too. It's all hers. I also don't own Jurassic World or Park or any lines from the movies. I just don't.

Gale's head throbs as he pushes his way through the crowd and avoids getting dive bombed by winged devils. He's going to have one hell of a goose egg on his head come tomorrow.

"Watch out!"

Instantly Gale looks upward, but finds himself instead pulled to the left to avoid a fresh pile of dung. One more gift from the not so friendly skies.

Keeping an eye out for more piles, they finally run into the bakery Mellark works at, slamming into the door so hard Gale is surprised it didn't shatter.

"Peeta!"

"Mellark! Get your ass out here!"

Mellark pops up from behind the counter, a pastry blender gripped in one hand and a spatula in the other. His tense expression eases when he sees who has run in.

Gale's eyebrows rise. "What were you going to do? Bake them into a pie or frost them?"

Looking sheepish, Mellark just shrugs. "I saw dinosaurs eating people through the window and just grabbed whatever was closest. Don't judge, man."

Not having time to badger Mellark anymore on his poor, and quite frankly baffling, choices of weaponry, Gale rolls his eyes and jerks his thumb back toward the still frantic crowd. "We need to get going to the petting zoo to get Katniss before we go to the resource pool."

Hearing Katniss' name snaps Mellark's attention and he drops his spatula and pastry blender before jumping the counter.

Before they can get out the door though, Mellark makes a strange squeaking noise and runs back to the counter. He dives over, his ridiculous pink converse flailing around in the air for a moment before he pops back, bouncing on the balls of his feet, a box in his hands.

"No use letting good cupcakes go to waste," he says with a smile. "I doubt the Snow family is going to be picking these up for the grandkids birthday anyways."

Deciding it isn't worth his breath to argue that now is not the time to be stealing from work, Gale grabs Madge's hand again and starts for the door.

He doesn't make it out before it's pushed back at him, nearly hitting him in the nose.

Finnick and Annie barrel in, followed closely by a very windswept looking Katniss.

She must've run into the other two during her mad dash to get to her boyfriend, who she probably, and very reasonably, thought might need rescuing.

Since Mellark had been prepared to fend for himself with a couple of kitchen utensils, she clearly knows him well.

Glad to be able to skip finding her, Gale sighs.

"I guess you got the call," Finnick manages to rasp out as he tries to catch his breath.

"Those stupid birds attacked my triceratops," Katniss growls, glaring out the window. "We had to open the gates and let them run out to the grassland to their mothers. Hopefully they can protect them."

Peeta nods somberly.

"They will." He opens the box and pulls out a cupcake. "Eat this, you'll feel better."

Still grinding her teeth and glaring, Katniss takes the offering, eating it angrily as she plots her revenge against the creatures that dared assault her babies.

"Oh! Can I have one?" Annie asks, looking delighted at the prospect of dessert.

Gale makes a disgusted noise. "This isn't the time for a picnic!"

Finnick frowns. "Don't be such a killjoy, Gale. There's always time for dessert. Annie and I were on our weekly extended lunch break. We hadn't even gotten through the appetizer."

Gale fights back the urge to tell him that he doesn't care, he and Madge hadn't even gotten that far, but he manages to swallow it back.

"Well, since we're all here, we need to get to the Innovation Center for the resource pool," he says instead.

"I'm not a resource," Mellark points out.

Before Gale can tell him he only came after his idiotic ass because Katniss would skin him alive if he left her dope of a boyfriend trapped in the middle of a catastrophe, Annie pipes up.

"Peeta, you have cupcakes."

Finnick nods. "Annie is right. Peeta, you are the most valuable resource."

Much as he wants to point out that literally any of them can carry a box of cupcakes, Gale doesn't. There'll be time to point out what morons they're all being later.

"There aren't as many anymore," Madge finally tells them after looking out the window at the sky, trying patiently to get them back on track. "We should probably get going."

Throwing the door open, the group runs out, through the now thinning crowd, toward the Center.

The building is in sight, and Gale is already mentally going through the evacuation protocols, when Madge stops in her tracks, her hand slipping from his.

"Madge, come on!"

She's not looking at him though. Her attention is all on some dumbass tourist in a floral shirt and hideous board shorts, sitting at one of the small lunch benches that line the edge of the road.

Gale groans and grabs at his hair, standing it on end. Not this asshole. Wasn't he supposed to be on vacation in Jamaica or something?

Haymitch is a friend of Mr. Masrani, had been a friend of Mr. Hammond too, is a major investor, and he practically lives on the island. Gale can only assume he has to make the island his main home because he's banned from most of the world, probably because of his drinking.

Beyond that, he's also an old family friend of the Undersees.

When they'd first come to Ilsa Nublar, Madge kept quiet about her connection with one of the biggest donors to the park's research.

"I don't want people to think I used my family to get this job," she'd told him, after he'd seen her having lunch with the filthy old drunk.

Gale had nearly bitten his tongue at that. It was exactly what he had been thinking.

Ever since he'd met her on the ferry he'd been determined to figure out just how a girl like her had ended up in such an unglamorous job. Jurassic World was in a nice location, that was true, but it was hardly the kind of place a girl like Madge Undersee fought to work at. She shouldn't be working at all.

"I want to make my own way in the world," she'd said. "I didn't even tell Haymitch I'd applied. I didn't want him making any calls. He was as shocked as anyone when I told everyone I got in. I got this job all on my own."

The way her jaw had set and she'd narrowed her eyes, daring him to prove otherwise, had impressed him. She'd probably had to defend her every move her whole life, make people listen to her and see that she was capable of achieving things without her family carrying her through for years.

He'd felt a little bad after that, ashamed really. She was good at her job, great even, better than her supervisor for sure. Of course she'd gotten the job on her own merits.

Sometimes Gale still wants to laugh at her about it though, especially when she worries about getting canned for bending rules. How she thinks she could ever be fired for something as stupid as getting a decent meal, with a connection like that, he isn't sure. Maybe she doesn't realize that even if she doesn't ask for it, Haymitch would never let her get booted.

Still, she's kept her friendship quiet, only a handful of people know about it, just to keep the gossip away.

Honestly though, if Gale had a so called friend like Haymitch, he'd want to keep it quiet too.

Granted, he hangs out with Thom...

"Haymitch!" Madge starts to run across the now almost vacant road to the table, and, grudgingly, Gale trots after her.

Raising a half drank margarita up, Haymitch smiles at her. "Strange weather we're having, huh, sweetheart?"

"Better than Sandals, I think, since you're here and not there. Like you're supposed to be." Madge crosses her arms over her chest and sets him in a stern look.

He shrugs and sips his drink. "Had a little...misunderstanding with the concierge."

Probably got in a fight in one of the spas again, Gale thinks irritably.

Shaking her head, most likely to dislodge all the awful possibilities that could've resulted in yet another banning for the bastard, Madge sighs. "Nevermind. They're evacuating the island. You need to come on. You can come with us to the Innovation Center."

Haymitch takes another drink. "I'll get down to the ferry-"

"Get your ass up and come with us or I'll drag you!" Gale snaps, before Haymitch can make some half baked excuse for why he can't come.

Gale might think it would be some kind of twisted justice if one of the pterosaurs picked the old jackass up and drop him in the drink a few dozen times before eating his worthless hide, but Madge wouldn't. For some unfathomable reason, she _likes_ Haymitch, and not seeing her upset is enough reason to save his ass.

Looking indignant, Haymitch stands, drink still in hand, and gives Gale a cool smile. "Lead the way, numb-nuts."

#######

Half an hour later they've packed most of the panicky, tired, and frightened tourists on the ferries, including a very annoyed Thom.

"Thanks for taking me with you," he grumbles under the blanket he'd been given. "Worst. Friend. Ever."

"You did say to pretend not to know you if anyone saw us," Gale points out. And multiple people had seen them.

Thom mumbles something that sounds like 'not what I said' and 'asshat', but then flops down and goes to sleep.

Gale is forced, to his loud and frequent protest, into the medical station on the ferry shortly after that.

He's fine of course, he's not like a lot of other people, with punctures and claw marks, but Madge frets over him just the same. It's pleasant, but being able bodied ends up meaning he has to help carry some of the injured and help get the makeshift infirmary in order.

When he's finally released from his job as a human gurney, he finds Madge standing at the back of the boat, arms crossed over the rail and squinting back at the island shrinking in the distance.

"Do you think they'll be able to catch all the flyers?" She asks, her voice almost lost in the sounds of the sea against the ship.

Gale shrugs. He doesn't tell her, but killing them would probably be the kindest thing for them actually. They're out of place, out of time-literally-and letting them run wild in the world at large would only threaten the delicate balance of the planet.

"Annie and Finnick were worried about Mosa. They say she'll starve in her tank."

Gale leans into the rail beside her, back to what is now the failed experiment that was Jurassic World. "Probably."

There's nothing they can do for her now. The mosasaur will likely starve in her tank, and there's no hope of helping her.

She can't be released into the wild, that's for damn sure, and it isn't reasonable or feasible to want to fly her meals a dozen times a day. Unless something falls in, she's doomed.

In the distance something roars, Gale thinks it's the T. Rex, he's almost positive it is. He smiles to himself. She's a tough girl, Brutus will be beside himself that she's still alive despite whatever was rampaging through the island.

They still aren't one hundred percent sure what happened, but from the rumors they'd heard, InGen had bit off more than it could chew, creating a beast they had no hope of controlling, and it had gone about as well as could be expected.

"For the sake of the dinosaurs that have a chance, I hopes that monster those scientists conjured up dies quickly," Gale says as the roar fades away.

Nose wrinkling up just slightly, Madge frowns.

"Monster is a pretty harsh word for a creature just acting on instinct. Cats are monsters to canaries, and people are monsters to almost everything else."

"Well, I'd like to keep us at the top of the food chain for a while longer."

So if he ever meets up with one of the idiots that dreamed up that nightmare, he's going to make sure they can't make the same mistake twice.

Madge, turns away from the island and leans into Gale's side as he wraps an arm around her shoulder and kisses her hair. It still smells wonderful.

"We're unemployed now, you know?" She finally says.

A little smile, a little self depreciating, twists up on her lips. Then a snort of laughter escapes.

"I'm unemployed," she laughs. "I told you I'd lose my job if we snuck into Winston's"

Gale rolls his eyes and pulls her to his chest, tangling his fingers in her hair. "You'll be the family shame."

Grinning, she props her chin on his sternum and looks up.

"Maybe we should bum around Florida for a while. Stay at my grandparents."

Gale laughs. "Yeah, Margery would just love that. She always did think I'd end up jobless."

"Okay, well we have theme park experience," Madge points out. "Maybe we can get jobs at Disney while we're there. At least if the attractions break down there the animatronics don't try to eat the tourists."

Kissing the tip of her nose, then her lips, Gale chuckles.

"Not getting eaten is always a plus for a job prospect."

His hands drop a little lower on her waist and he pulls her closer while trying to figure out just where the closest closet is on the deck when Madge sighs.

"So I guess your family won't be coming down for Christmas after all, huh?"

Gale just groans.


End file.
